NASA's Neurodiversity Network Solar Science: High School Session 3 - Solar Energy

Introduction
In the Solar Science curriculum you will be provided with five Sessions that are designed to be taught over the course of one month. In Session 3, your learners will compare their own observations to those made by NASA using an online tool called "Helioviewer", along with learning the mechanism behind solar eclipses.

Teacher Guides
"Sunspot Data" [Google Sheets] is a spreadsheet for students to input the number of sunspots they observe on the Sun at given times via Helioviewer.

The "Tac Facs" are used to provide specific pieces of information to students regarding multiple physical phenomea which relate to the Sun. The file names of the unzipped Tac Fac files include suggestions for the color of the paper for them to be printed on along with the number of Tac Fac card sets which can be printed per sheet of paper.

The "Helioviewer User Guide" is a detailed guidebook to instruct students in how to use the online NASA resource "Helioviewer" [Link] to gain current and historical data regarding solar activity.

The YouTube video "Modeling Moon Phases & Eclipses" [Link] shows Dr. Bryan Mendez creating a simple model of the Sun/Earth/Moon system to demonstrate the positional causes behind the phases of the Moon and solar eclipses.

The "Explaining Eclipses" slides provide an overview of the eclipses visible on Earth, covering details such as their causes, types, and the visual effects they create. The Core version (11 slides) [Google Slides] includes the key details regarding eclipses specifically. The Full version (35 slides) [Google Slides] includes additional details and a brief explainer at the end regarding safe observation of a solar eclipse. The Deluxe version (55 slides) [Google Slides] includes yet more information, an expanded safe observation section, and a brief explainer at the end regarding photography of a solar eclipse.

Student Guides
The "Student Guide" [Google Drive PDF] documents are to be provided to the students for the activities in Session 3. The "Screen Reader" [Google Drive PDF] variant is intended to be accessible for students using screen readers as detailed in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Award Information
NASA’s Neurodiversity Network materials are based upon work supported by NASA under award number 80NSSC21M0004 to Sonoma State University, working in partnership with the Education Development Center (EDC), the New York Hall of Science, and WestEd. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Contact the N3 team by emailing edeon@sonoma.edu.

Community Citation

NASA SciAct Eclipse 2023-24, Zenodo. https://zenodo.org/communities/sciact_eclipse/